


The Tower of Scarif

by Quipxotic



Series: On a Planet Far, Far Away [1]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Airships, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Battle of Scarif, Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-30 03:38:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11455200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quipxotic/pseuds/Quipxotic
Summary: A long time ago, on a planet far, far away…It is a time of civil war. The Empire is slowly dismantling the remains of the Great Republic using a devastating military force of orcs, goblins, and human stormtroopers. With the Jedi destroyed, other religious orders fear they will meet a similar fate at the hands of Emperor Palpatine.All around the world rebel groups are rising up to oppose the Empire. From ancient city-states to distant farming villages, people of all races are arming themselves with crossbow, sword, and spell to fight for their freedom. Despite a handful of recent victories the largest resistance force, the Alliance, is struggling to find its way through uncertain times. Faced with news of a terrible weapon, a small group of companions set out to gather information about the Empire’s capabilities. Led by the half-elf spy Cassian Andor and Jyn Erso, a thief and daughter of the weapon’s creator, the team seeks to steal the plans for the weapon before it can rain destruction on the peoples of the world.





	The Tower of Scarif

**Author's Note:**

> This ficlet covers the end of the Battle of Scarif but removes most of the science fiction elements, replacing them with fantasy ones. It's a mixture of people, places, and things from the Star Wars universe but condensed so that they all reside on a single planet. Plus I've added elements from the _Pathfinder Roleplaying Game_ , like D&D classes and races, and other fantasy ideas (like sailing ships that fly through the air using magic). But, despite all that, the characters are basically the same and the events change only slightly to accommodate a world without (or at least with very little) science.

Jyn clung to the remnants of the catwalk at the top of the Tower of Scarif. The Imperial dragon rider who had targeted her flew on, apparently assuming she’d either been hit or had fallen to her death. But Jyn had no time to congratulate herself on this lucky break. Arms aching, she slowly pulled herself back up to a part of the walkway that was still intact. As she struggled to stand, the metal creaked and swayed under feet. Cautiously Jyn limped toward the device at the center of the tower. The plans for the Death Star were there, waiting for her to complete the sequence that would send them to the rebel fleet. 

A sudden movement on her left caught her attention. The man in white walked out of the smoke, his handheld crossbow aimed at her heart. Reaching for her own weapon, Jyn found nothing but an empty leather holster that normally strapped the crossbow to her back. She must have dropped it as she struggled to avoid falling from the tower in the aftermath of the dragon rider attack. Regardless, she was completely unarmed now. 

The man in white eyed her in anger and confusion. “Who are you?” he asked at last.

Jyn stared back at him, almost numb with realization. Here he was, like a nightmare from her childhood - a man whose actions had repeated blighted every moment of Jyn’s life, and he didn’t know her. Did he even remember killing her mother? Jyn felt her anger growing, her father’s last words ringing in her ears, the memory of Cassian falling to his death fresh in her mind. 

Maybe she couldn’t win, but she could damn well make sure he remembered her, remembered all of them.

“You know who I am. I’m Jyn, daughter of Galen and Lyra Erso,” she said with pride. 

After a few moments, she saw recognition in his eyes and the arm holding the crossbow shook slightly. 

“The child?” 

Jyn nodded defiantly. “You’ve lost,” she replied, sounding far more confident than she felt. Maybe, if she kept him talking, she could find a way to distract or overpower him. It was a long shot, but she’d risk anything that allowed her to survive long enough to complete her mission.

“Have I?” The man sneered at her, seeming to regain some of his composure. “How?”

“My father’s revenge. He put a flaw in the Death Star - a weakness in the middle of your weapon.” She smiled as she bluffed. “And I just told the rebels how to find it.”

“The base is magically shielded,” he sneered at her. “Whatever you sent won’t make it beyond this tower. All your fighters on the ground and in the air will die just like your companion in the tower vault. I’ve lost nothing but time. Whereas you,” he raised the crossbow again, “have lost everything.”

Jyn heard the twang and rush of air of a crossbow bolt in flight and braced herself for pain that never came. The man in white gasped and crumpled into a heap. Behind him, Cassian limped out of the smoke. He was bloody and had to lean against a nearby column to steady his aim, but he was alive. In that moment he was the most beautiful person she’d ever seen.

But she had no time to greet him. She threw herself forward into a hobbling run until she reached the tower’s central column. She adjust the controls of the device just as Bodhi had instructed and pulled the leaver. For a moment the plans glowed inside the machine, then the glow separated itself to form a mist that flew through valves and tubes up toward the dish at the top of the tower. And from there to the rebel fleet, she hoped. Just then she heard a cry coming from far below and looked around to see what had happened. In the distance two Imperials destroyers, critically damaged and smoldering, crashed into the towers that controlled Scarif’s defenses. The magical shield above the base shimmered and disappeared, like a soap bubble bursting. 

Jyn wanted to laugh. She wanted to shake her fist at the Death Star hovering overhead and yell, “your time is coming!” But she was simply too tired. Instead she smiled and stumbled toward Cassian. He gasped out in pain as he tried to stay upright and for the first time she saw the full extent of his injuries. She followed the line of his crossbow to where the man in white lay, a bolt still sticking out of his back. Jyn’s anger rose again and drove every other thought from her mind. She rounded on the Imperial officer, determined to finish him off for Cassian, for her parents, and for the all Alliance soldiers who had followed her to Scarif only to find their deaths here.

Cassian caught her arm and pulled her back against his chest. “No, don’t,” he mumbled with quiet fervor. “Leave him. He’s not going anywhere.” When she finally stopped struggling, he relaxed slightly. “That’s it. Let’s go.”

She slipped her arm around him as gently as she could and helped lead him toward the elevator. Once they were inside, she leaned him against the metal walls of the carriage and pulled the lever to take them down. The mechanisms clanged into action instantly, the gears and pulleys still working despite the damage the tower had taken in the last few hours. She returned to Cassian’s side for the journey back to the base of the tower. They likely didn’t have long until the Death Star destroyed both the main island and all the surrounding area. She glanced at Cassian and noticed that he was looking intently back at her. Despite the fact that they was about to die, she didn’t dare ask what he was thinking. Soon it wouldn’t matter anyway. 

The elevator carriage arrived at ground level with a thud. Jyn guided Cassian forward, but as she reached toward the controls, the doors slid open to reveal a black shape towering over them. Jyn scrambled to grab Cassian’s weapon, but then recognized who it was.

“K2?” she asked, too bewildered to feel relieved.

“Kay?” Cassian lifted his head and smiled hesitantly at his friend. “How-“

“Superior strategic analysis,” K-2SO quipped. “And this is why you should let me carry a crossbow more often.” Despite his sarcastic tone, he’d sustained terrible damage - the metal of his torso was melted in many places and several crossbow bolts were sticking out of his back and shoulders. Ignoring his own injuries, Kay bent down to pick Cassian up in his arms. As he moved past her, Jyn heard the gears and mechanisms that gave the automaton motion whining and shuddering as they struggling to maintain his most basic functions. “We need to move quickly if we hope to escape this place.” 

“Escape?” Jyn hadn’t allowed herself thoughts of escape. She had assumed they’d die on Scarif Island, something she felt surprisingly resigned to now. “Is there time? I don’t see any ships nearby and, even if there were, would you be able to pilot anything in the shape you’re in?”

Kay looked to his left where a battered cargo ship was flying toward them. “I shouldn’t have to-” 

“Bodhi?”

“And a few of the others, evidently.” Kay moved haltingly toward the ship as the hatch on the side opened. Several ropes were thrown down to them and the vessel’s solar sails adjusted slightly so it could hover near the ground.

“Tie them around yourselves!” a voice yelled from above. Jyn did as she was told while K2 secured a rope under Cassian’s arms. She felt the ropes tighten as she was lifted off the ground. Seconds later she was pulled onboard by an exhausted, but smiling Taidu Selfa. “I guess you made the most of your chances too?” he asked with a grin. Beside him, Tonc and Baze struggled get Kay and Cassian onboard. All of them were wounded and battered, but gloriously and unexpectedly alive.

Once they were all safely inside, Tonc pulled the hatch closed. “We’re in Bodhi!” he yelled toward the ship’s wheel. “Get us out of here!” 

Jyn felt the cargo ship move, the metal and wood groaning as it picked up speed. Selfa helped her out of the hold and into the ship’s living area. Melshi and Chirrut were laying on bunks near the door - both were badly injured and neither were moving. 

“Are they-“

“No,” Sefla reassured her, “but if that wizard doesn’t get us out of here soon, we all will be.” 

“I’ll go help Bodhi,” Tonc said, squeezing past Jyn to climb the ladder to the ship’s control room. Baze barely glanced at him as he followed Jyn into the cramped living space. He carefully lowered Cassian into a bunk near Chirrut. The spy looked pale and he was breathing heavily, but at least he was still conscious. 

Once Cassian was settled, Baze stood to retrieve the ship’s healing supplies. The dwarf briefly placed a hand on Chirrut’s head as he passed, but the elven monk showed no signs of being aware of the gesture. 

“How bad is it?” Jyn asked, as Baze returned to care for the newest arrivals. “All of them, I mean?”

“I don’t know, their wounds are beyond my skills. But I’ve given Chirrut and the rebel soldier healing potions.” As he spoke, the dwarf pulled another bottle from a nearby bag. “I’ll do the same for the Captain and for you. It should stabilize you all until we can get somewhere else with better care.”

The ship tilted suddenly. Jyn couldn’t see the energy blast that was buffeting it, but she could feel it in the air around her like a wave beginning to crest or a fast moving storm. Jyn wasn’t religious as a rule, but she reached under her shirt and pulled out the kyber crystal that hung around her neck. Under her breath she repeated the words of the prayer she’d heard Chirrut say many times: “I’m one with the Force and the Force is with me.” With her other hand, she reached out to grip Cassian’s fingers.

And, just in case it might help, she muttered prayers to every god and goddess she knew. Perhaps one of them would grant she and her companions enough luck to escape disaster one more time. 

**Author's Note:**

> A couple of months ago I wondered, "What would it be like to put the Rogue One team into a D&D style fantasy world?" I started scripting out a basic plot and tweaking things to make them fit, but eventually I stopped working on it because I was busy with other things.
> 
> While I'm still busy with other things, I recently listened to some episodes of Big Finish's _[Pathfinder Legends](https://www.bigfinish.com/ranges/released/pathfinder)_ series and loved them. That made me want to revisit the idea, which led to this trial run of what such a world might look like.


End file.
